After we learn to crawl and before we learn to walk, we must learn to get-up off of the ground. This may seem simple to some, but for others this becomes very difficult without the aid of holding onto something. And to certain populations, falling to the ground is quite scary because they are just not strong or mobile enough to get up on their own (queue the cliché “help, I’ve fallen and can’t get-up” commercial). This is a real fear, something that may be inevitable, but can certainly be delayed through training. As always, progressions of getting up off the floor is crucial. There are several ways to “bring the body up off of the ground from a laying position to an upright position”. I will go through the progressions of one of the more common ways of doing this: the Turkish get-up.

Reach Crunch– Lay face up. Feet will be on the ground, knees in the air. Take your right arm and reach it straight to the ceiling. Keep your low back on the ground but lift the right shoulder off of the ground.

Reach and Roll– Lay face up. Keep your left leg straight on the floor and left elbow out on the floor perpendicular to the body. Keep your right foot on the ground with you right knee in the air. With your right arm reach it straight to the ceiling, lifting your entire torso up off the ground by rolling to your left elbow.

Reach and Roll w/Bridge– Do the reach and roll. At the end of the reach and roll, press into the ground with your right foot to lift your hips in the air, while rolling to your left hand. Make sure you are still reaching your right arm straight to the ceiling.

Half Turkish Get-up– Do the reach and roll w/bridge. Pull your left leg underneath your body so that your left knee ends up directly underneath your hips. End in a kneeling lunge stance. Make sure you are still reaching your right arm straight to the ceiling.

Split Squats– In a standing position, place your right foot in front of your hips and you left foot behind your hips. Lower your hips so that your left knee is about an inch away from the ground. Make sure that both knees come to 90 degree angles and you torso remains perpendicular to the ground.

Lunge Kneel to Stand– Kneel on the ground with your right foot in front and your left knee down underneath your hips. Stand up from this position and bring your feet together.

Full Turkish Get-up– Do the half Turkish get-up and then the lunge kneel to stand. Make sure you are still reaching your right arm straight to the ceiling.

Keep in mind that all of these progressions are done unloaded. The most important thing is the form and the ability to get up off the floor. Loading will come later, and would have more steps to add in the progression so that the participant will be able to do this safely and effectively. Check out the video on our Facebook page to see the progressions.

Before we walk we must crawl. Before we crawl we must make sure our body is prepared. Crawling is an activity that many of us haven’t done since we were children. Once we learned to walk as our primary mean of manual transport we only revisited crawling during time of play. As we grew up our forms of play changed and rarely was crawling apart of this play. Even though we were once able to crawl with very little issue, we need to progress back to this primitive movement pattern.

Crawling requires strength, stability and mobility in the hands, wrists, shoulders and core. If someone has an issue within these areas, that issue must be addressed first before the actual progression begins. In the beginning of the progression the crawl will not quite look like a crawl, but rather derivatives of the crawl that match this definition: “To advance in a prone or supine position where hands and feet are in contact with the ground.”

The progression of the crawl depends on which variation of a crawl you would like to do. The amount of progression and how long you stay in each progression will depend on the clients starting point and ability level. Since there are so many variations of crawl I will start pretty basic to stay within the scope of a blog format. I will use the lateral bear crawl as an example.

Here are some pictures with a brief description of each progression.

Quadruped Position– on your hands and knees with hands under shoulders and knees as wide as hands.

Straight Arm Plank Position– at the top of a push-up position. Hands should be under shoulders and body line should be straight.

Quadruped Single Arm/Leg Reach– In quadruped position. Lift arm of ground and support body weight with three points of contact. Then go to the other arm, then the right leg and finish with the left leg.

Quadruped Bird Dog– Lift opposite arm and leg at the same time and support body weight with two points of contact.

Straight Arm Plank Single Arm/Leg Reach– in a straight arm plank position (yes, I realize this image is a regular plank position but I couldn’t find an image for a straight arm position) lift one leg off the ground to support yourself with three points of contact. Lift the other leg, then the right arm and finish with the left.

Straight Arm Bird Dog– In a straight arm plank position lift opposite arm and opposite leg to support yourself with two points of contact.

Knee Push-ups– Support yourself with your hands and knees and do a push up. Maintain a straight body line from shoulder to knees.

Straight Leg Push-ups – support yourself with your hands and knees and do a push up. Maintain a straight body line from shoulder to ankles.

Lateral Knee Push-ups– (Sorry, couldn’t find a picture for this one, but look below at the lateral straight leg push-up.) In a knee push-up position, step you right hand and knee to the right and do a push-up. Recover your left hand and knee to your right hand and knee and do a push-up. Continue this pattern for a determined distance and then return to the starting point.

Lateral Straight Leg Push-ups– In a straight arm push-up position, step you right hand and foot to the right and do a push-up. Recover your left hand and foot to your right hand and foot and do a push-up. Continue this pattern for a determined distance and then return to the starting point.

Lateral Bear Crawl– Get into a bear crawl position (hands under shoulder, knees tucked under hips with feet in contact to the ground). Step your right hand and right foot to the right side and then recover your left hand and foot to the right. Continue this pattern for a determined distance and then return to the start. (The picture that best represents this is the bottom guy)

For a video of the progressions check out the Pursuit Institute facebook page.

As we age, as we become more sedentary, and as we become more specialized in our movements we develop restriction patterns. Over our lifetime certain muscles may get tight while others get weak. We start to compensate in our movements and those compensations perpetuate this cycle of tight and weak muscles. Eventually there is break down in the system of movement. When there is break down inefficiencies and injuries occur.

Before entering any program, one should be properly screened. This may be even truer for the Primitive Initiative® because the program is designed around normal human movement patterns. Movement patterns that potentially have not been done since a person was a child. Not only do we have to be concerned with someone’s ability and preparation for such movements, but we must also be concerned of what a person just physically can’t do. If a person is restricted they are unable to move normally. It’s an issue of can’t and not “this is hard because I haven’t done this in a while”.

Because of this we must first eliminate restrictions of movement and teach the Primitive Initiative® training in a progressive manner. I call this the foundation phase, or a more familiar term to most will be the General Prep portion in the Preparatory Phase of a Periodization scheme. Regardless of what we call it the goal is the same: to prepare the body for the work ahead. To lay a solid foundation so that when higher intensity training is added the body will be able to handle it.

To start this we should do a functional assessment. I can’t emphasize enough how important a functional assessment is before beginning a program (see my previous blog “The Value of Functional Assessments). Movement screens will help identify areas of dysfunction. Exercises will then be given to help eliminate such areas. The number of restrictions a person has will dictate the length of time they dedicate to these exercises. The more restrictions the longer this phase of training will last.

While the largest part of eliminating restrictions will take place in the foundation phase, these exercises will always be a part of the training at varying degrees. To have quality movement, one must continually maintain corrective exercises. These can be a part of the warm-up, as their own circuit, or added throughout the workout.

Outside of eliminating restrictions we must prepare the body to move like it hasn’t done in years (because it probably hasn’t). We will work a lot with isometric holds, slow eccentric contractions, and stabilization, balance, mobility and core exercises during this phase. Teaching technique of movements and what the body should be doing will be crucial. Moving slow to fast will help this, as well as knowing/teaching the proper progressions of the 14 fundamental movements.

Without a solid foundation, a million dollar home will collapse. This is true of any training program (cliché I know….but it is pretty much law at this point). The Primitive Initiative® aims to add human movement patterns back into exercise to extend peoples quality of life. If the body isn’t used to human movement patterns and they are introduced too quickly we risk the potential of reducing quality of life. If we don’t prepare the body, then the body will break.

As mentioned in the previous blog the Primitive Initiative® is a movement oriented training model based on 14 fundamental movement patterns arranged in a specific sequence to maximize results. It combines biomechanical training with energy system sequencing to provide real life fitness for real life movements. This can be an “end all be all” program or can be supplemented into current training programs. Because this is a real life program it is specific to each person. If someone likes to do bodybuilding, power lifting, distance running etc. many of these movement patterns can still be implemented in each person’s training regimen for better results and less injuries.

So let’s get started……..what is “Biomechanical Training”? Well, that’s just a fancy way of me saying human movement training. I have identified 14 human movement patterns that are common throughout life. As young children we incorporate many of these as we learn to move and play. As we become older we either begin to become sedentary or very specific in the nature of our training. In either situation, we start to lose or neglect certain movement patterns. This gets worse and worse as we go through our life. The biomechanical training is designed to help reestablish the mobility and movement of the early years in our life.

Here are the 14 movement patterns that I have grouped into 3 categories:

Manipulative:

Throwing/Catching: To propel an object through the air from a limb and then to grasp and hold onto an object as it propels back to the body.

Picking up: Bringing an object up off of the ground and then bringing it back to the ground.

Pushing- To press against an object with force in order to drive or impel in the direction of the force.

Pulling- To exert force upon an object so as to cause or tend to cause motion toward the force.

Chopping- To make a quick stroke or repeated stroke in an arcing motion.

Jumping/Landing: To spring into the air and then absorbing impact as the body is brought back to the surface.

Getting up: Bringing the body up off of the ground from a laying position to an upright position.

Crawling: To advance in a prone or supine position where hands and feet are in contact with the ground.

Climbing: Moving suspended from the ground with gradual continued process.

Crouching: To lower the body stance while bending at the legs.

Variable:

Transit: An act of passing through or over terrain.

Dynamic Methods- Activities that are fluid, connected, and skilled in their patterns. (Ok, I will admit this my catch all category for those movements that were hard for me to classify. Things like dancing, tumbling and fighting will fall in this category)

Some of these are self-explanatory, some are not. I will use future posts to further explore each movement and how to progress people through the movements. Much like any program design, progression is key. After all, if people have come to a point where they have not done a certain movement pattern since their childhood they are just as likely to injure themselves in a gym setting doing it as they would in a real life setting. That is why they need to be progressed. This we will leave for later, but for now, try to absorb the movements and look at your own programs to see what they might be missing. Next week I will discuss another fancy word: Energy System Sequencing.

In my near two decade fitness career I have had the pleasure of working with many clients of varying ages, abilities, dysfunctions, and goals. In that time span I have worked with many Collegiate Athletes, budding youth athletes, obese and overweight populations, post-rehab/surgical clients, elderly populations, medical populations, the generally healthy, and even an Olympic athlete. With this wide spectrum of clients I began to find one common problem within each demographic: the lack of movement within their training programs.

I am sure that it is not a surprise for some of these groups, but it may come as a surprise for other groups. In my experience modern life has made us less and less likely to move. As the human race has evolved we have developed lifestyles of efficiency. Unfortunately this efficiency of life has made us inefficient operators of our bodies.

When we are brought into this world we are a blank slate, ready to absorb as much as we possibly can. Everything we learn is through experimentation and exploration. It is trial and error. The more error there is the quicker we learn. It is an amazing time in our lives. Everything is a new experience. We learn to smile, laugh, talk, crawl, walk, and run. We learn to interact with others. We learn to interact with and manipulate objects. We learn to play. Our play is wide and vast, almost limitless.

At some point in our lives we take one of two tracks. We either become sedentary or we become specialized. We may choose to play video games and watch tv instead of going outside and running around playing. We may choose to play organized sports. If we do play sports we start to specialize very early. Many sports have become year round with the school season sport, AAU sport, Travel leagues, and sport specific training. Our wide and vast movement patterns that we once had begun to disappear.

As we grow even older we go to college and take jobs that have us bound to a desk, hunched over a computer. If we have the time and motivation to go to the gym, we pick select exercises that are inefficient and may cover only a very few of the movement patterns that are woefully missing from our lives.

Due to this slippery slope of non-movement, as we age we are unable to perform certain tasks efficiently. Picking things up off the ground, reaching for a seat belt, getting up off the floor all become arduous tasks. Our joints begin to get immobile, sore, swollen and broken down. Sudden movements become risks of severe injury. If an injury occurs it will take nearly two to three times as it once did to recover fully from it, if at all. Chances are there will always be a limitation from the injury which ultimately will cause a compensation pattern. This will put undue stress upon another system or joint until there is another injury. Once this injury cycle is entered into it is hard to escape. Quality of function and ultimately quality of life is severely diminished.

It has been said that exercise is the only singular thing that reduces the risk of every known disease and illness and prolongs life. I submit that movement is the only singular thing that will enhance and extend functional capacity, reduce injury, and increase quality of life. My aim is to add movement back into fitness and into people’s lives.

Because of this I have created the Primitive Initiative®(notice the that I trademarked it! That’s how strongly I believe this is the direction that the field should be and is going). The Primitive Initiative® is a movement oriented training model based on 14 fundamental movement patterns arranged in a specific sequence to maximize results. It combines biomechanical training with energy system sequencing to provide real life fitness for real life movements. Whether you call it athleticism, mobility or functionality, Primitive Initiative® enables the human body to operate in all planes of motion, in all positions of center of gravity, at all levels of intensity, in varying bases of support with efficiency and proficiency. The Primitive Initiative® aims to add real human movement patterns back into fitness and exercise. This is the movement for movement, and I am excited to share this technique with you over the next several blogs!